Qanoderma (Ganoderma lucidum Leyss ex Fr. Karst) is a polyporous fungus. It belongs to the class Basidiomycetes, the family Polypolaceae, and the genus Ganoderma. Since ancient timnes, ganoderma has been praised as a miracle fungus for its capability of prolonging human life. It is believed that the medicinal effects of ganodenna lie upon the natural or bioactive substances it produces which can stimulate or modulate the neuro-endocrino-immuno system of human body to fight off diseases. Ganoderma is also well known for its antitumor and immune enhancing properties, (Kim et al., Int. J. Mol. Med. (1999), 4(3):273-277), cardiovascular effects (Lee et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull. (1990), 38:1359-1364), as well as free radical scavenging and antihepatotoxic activities (Lin et al., J. Ethnopharmacol., (I995), 47(1):33-41). Two substances extracted from ganodenna have been reported to especially relate to the medicinal effects of ganoderma. They are triterpene and polysaccharide, although so far no clinical evidence has been provided which supports the claims of medicinal effects of these substances. (Mekkawy et al., Phaochemistry, (1998), 49(6):1651-1657; Wasser et al., Crit. Rev. Immunol., (1999), 19(1):65-96).
Ganoderma is the most rare and valuable herb in Chinese medicine. It is known in China for over 5,000 years as "ling zhi". There are a variety of ganodenma, for instance, G. lucidum (red), G. applanatum (brown), G. tsugae (red), G. sinense (black), and G. oregonense (dark brown). However, due to the fact that wild types of ganoderma only grow naturally and very rarely on aged trees in steep mountains, research which requires a constant supply of high quantity and quality of ganoderma has rarely been conducted.
Not until recently, after the development of artificial cultivation techniques, methods for artificially cultivating Ganodenna lucidum (Fr) Karst have been developed. (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,907). The newly developed cultivation methods allow researchers to produce sufficient amount of ganoderma for the studies.
Although it is believed that the spores of ganoderma represent the essence of ganoderma because they contain all the bioactive substances of ganoderma, most of the ganoderma studies are conducted using the fruit body or mycelium of ganoderma as experimental materials. Ganoderma spores are rarely studied.
Ganoderma spores are tiny and mist-like spores of 5.about.8 .mu.m in sizes which have extremely hard and resilient, double-layer epispores, thus making them difficult to break open. The ganoderma spores normally scatter at the pelius of mature ganoderma. When mature, the ganoderma spores are ejected from the pileus. Such ejected ganodenna spores are collectively called "spore powders". In the wild, the "spore powders" are difficult to collect because of the following reasons: (1) the germination rate (i.e., about 3-15%) of the spores is extremely low; (2) the ejection period is relatively short (i.e., approximately 10 days per lifecycle); and (3) some environmental factors, such as wind and rain, may also hinder the collection of the spores. In addition, the substances of the collected spores are difficult to extract due to the resiliency of the epispores.
In recent years, there have been reports which disclose methods for breaking the cell walls of the Ganoderma lucidum spores. For example, JP52041208 discloses the extraction of effective components of spores of "shiitake" by efficient mechanical breaking of the cell membranes. JP2240026A discloses the use of solvent to break open the ganoderma spores. CN1134306 discloses a method for producing sporoderm-broken Ganoderma lucidum sporopollen which combines water soaking, air-drying and microwave heating treatment. CN1165032 discloses a method for breaking the skin of spore powder of Ganoderma lucidum with a skin-dissolving enzyme such as lysozyme, snail enzyme, cellulase and hemicellulase, followed by freezing and melting in enzymolized liquid, and ultrasound.
With the improvement of the spore breaking techniques, more research which directed to the studies of the ganoderma spores has been undertaken. However, the improvement of the spore breaking techniques does not overcome the shortcoming of the low germination rate of the spores. In fact, due to the low germination rate, most of the studies on ganoderma spores are conducted using the extraction of bioactive substances from spores representing an array of dormant to various germination stages. Because the spores at different stages of the lifecycle produce different kinds and/or proportions of bioactive substances, each batch of the mixture of the spores thus contains different active ingredients. The results from such studies are apparently meaningless since no proper controls can be provided.
In the invention to be present below, a germination activation method will be introduced. This method can successfully activate the dormant ganoderma spores and increase the germination rate of the ganoderma spores to more than 95%. The present invention also provides a unique spore breaking method which not only allows for the high recovery of the bioactive substances in the spores, but also successfully preserves the functional activities of the bioactive substances. Finally, the present invention provides clinical studies which demonstrate the significance of the bioactive substances extracted from the germination activated ganoderma spores in treating patients or mammals with immunological disorders, cancer, AIDS, hepatitis, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The bioactive substances can also be used to prevent or inhibit free radical oxidation and hepatotoxic effect.